In a telecommunications network, a switch is a device that channels incoming data from any of a plurality of input ports to at least one output port that will communicate the data toward its intended destination. In the traditional circuit-switched telephone network, one or more switches are used to set up a dedicated temporary connection or circuit for an exchange between two or more parties. On an Ethernet local area network (LAN), a switch determines which output port to forward a particular packet frame based on the medium access control (MAC) address of the received packet frame. In a packet switched IP network, a switch may determine which output port to use to route the network packet based on the IP address of each packet.
Various software algorithms and applications have been developed to discover the topology of a network and detect the presence of loops in a network. Whenever a loop is detected, the traffic on those ports that form the loop may be blocked. A blocked port may not be used to forward traffic since it would result in the forwarded traffic being looped back and subsequently received at the output port from which it was communicated. Standardized protocols such as spanning tree and rapid spanning tree are utilized to detect and prevent occurrences of loops within a network. Such methods for detecting and preventing loops may be referred to as active methods.
A loop generally creates a high concentration of traffic, which excludes other applications from communicating data over the input and output ports that form the loop. If a sufficient amount of switch ports are placed in a loop, this may render the switch inoperable. This may occur in instances where traffic in a loop is also being broadcasted to other ports and may reduce those portions of a network that is served solely by the switch.
In addition to considerations regarding the effect that loops may have on the overall traffic levels through a switch, traffic levels may also relate to the effectiveness with which a switch may consume power. In this regard, switches may need to implement power control mechanisms that optimize power consumption in accordance with traffic demands.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.